1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and method for a printer or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
The dynamic range of a printer is narrower than the dynamic range of an imaging device such as a CCD (charge coupled device). Consequently if digital image data obtained from the imaging device is directly applied to the printer, a part of image information might be lost.
When an image represented by the digital image data having a wide dynamic range is printed, therefore, range conversion has been conventionally so performed using an LUT (look-up table) that the dynamic range of the digital image data falls within the dynamic range of the printer.
Since the range conversion processing of the digital image data using the LUT is one of level-compressing the whole digital image data so that the dynamic range of the digital image data falls within the dynamic range of the printer, however, the change in luminance is only suppressed as a whole. Consequently, the luminance of the digital image data low in luminance becomes lower and a part of the image represented by the image data becomes still darker, so that the image may, in some cases, be crushed.